http://tidbits.com/article/13980]]>http://db.tidbits.com/article/14175?rss#comments_20520
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 08:09:29 EDThttp://tidbits.com/article/14175#comments_20520You might have an easier time trying Downcast, though. The iOS version has gestures built in.]]>http://db.tidbits.com/article/14175?rss#comments_20519
Tue, 15 Oct 2013 08:04:55 EDThttp://tidbits.com/article/14175#comments_20519But even so, necessity is the mother of geekiness. And Apple's arbitrary choices to kneecap iTunes and hamstring the Music app in iOS 7 really gave me no choice but to seek workarounds. I would love to work within the system to manage and listen to podcasts, but I honestly can't figure out how to comfortably do that with the restrictions now in place in iTunes 11.1.1 and iOS 7—figuring that out and making it work requires even more geekiness, in my opinion.]]>http://db.tidbits.com/article/14175?rss#comments_20511
Mon, 14 Oct 2013 18:55:24 EDThttp://tidbits.com/article/14175#comments_20511Apple seems to have a thing about not getting podcasts right and this iteration is probably their worst effort so far. What I can't figure out is WHY ? What possessed Apple to screw around with podcasts so badly that even their own Genius Bar can't figure out how to get a simple playlist order working for me. ]]>http://db.tidbits.com/article/14175?rss#comments_20509
Mon, 14 Oct 2013 16:42:16 EDThttp://tidbits.com/article/14175#comments_20509http://db.tidbits.com/article/14175?rss#comments_20505
Mon, 14 Oct 2013 16:39:27 EDThttp://tidbits.com/article/14175#comments_20505If you only want an iOS podcasting solution, you should also look at Pocket Casts from ShiftyJelly.com. They utilize a network of servers which watch for new podcasts all over the world, and your app simply pings their network to see if any of your subscribed podcasts have been updated. This results in much faster refreshing/downloading. It takes several minutes for my 100+ podcast subscription list to update in Downcast (many of which are sporadically updated, but update checks take several seconds apiece anyway), and I've seen similar updates take a tiny fraction of the time with Pocket Casts]]>http://db.tidbits.com/article/14175?rss#comments_20503
Mon, 14 Oct 2013 15:32:42 EDThttp://tidbits.com/article/14175#comments_20503http://db.tidbits.com/article/14175?rss#comments_20502
Mon, 14 Oct 2013 14:14:11 EDThttp://tidbits.com/article/14175#comments_20502First, I use a separate Mac to download podcasts. Initially, it was downloading podcasts with iTunes 11, but it inexplicably kept downloaded duplicate and old podcasts. When I deleted these unwanted podcasts, they kept coming back and no matter what I tried, I couldn't make it stop. So I downgraded to iTunes 10.7, using instructions I found on ArsTechnica. That restored normal podcast downloading.

Once I have these podcasts downloaded and delete the ones I don't want to hear, I move them via iTunes sharing to my main computer, which is running iTunes 11, which is necessary to sync my iOS 7 device.

From here, I can sync selected playlists to a device running iOS 7, but I can also sync to a device running iOS 6. On this latter device, I can still listen to podcasts within the Music app with no problem.

There are two main advantages of listening to podcasts with the Music app. First, I can use a third-party iOS app to use gesture controls to control playback, volume and to zoom ahead or back by 15, 30, 60 seconds or five minutes. (The app is the now discontinued FlickTunes, which does not work with Apple's Podcast app. Another iOS app, CarTunes, may be a worthy successor for gesture control, but I haven't tried that.) Both the native Music app and the Podcasts app—with their tiny micro-target controls to advance or rewind only 15 seconds at a time—provide inadequate controls to easily navigate through podcasts, past ads or slow spots.

The second advantage of listening to podcasts with the Music app is that I can shuffle my podcasts, something the Podcasts app also can't do. I don't have to think about and plan what I'm going to hear next. I have a nicely curated playlist I've created, so I'm usually pleasantly surprised by what's next—and if I'm not I can quickly use the three-finger swipe gesture to zoom through it five minutes at a time.

So what if I want to listen to a podcast on an iOS 7 device? If I want to listen to a playlist of podcasts in chronological sequence, then OK, yes, I will use the Podcast app for very brief sessions. But the lack of control and flexibility usually sends me back to listening to podcasts in the Music app on my iOS 6 device.

If I really, really want to listen to podcasts on the iOS 7 device, I will convert the Media Kind of the podcast files from Podcast to Audiobook. Then, the playlist will appear again in the Music app on the iOS 7 device, plus I still have the advantage of listening at 2X speed, I can shuffle the playlist—plus, I have a copy of the discontinued FlickTunes which works fine on the iOS 7 device, even though it has been discontinued for nearly a year, so I can use gesture controls to navigate through these podcasts, which are now actually audiobook files.]]>